Iron Man 3 brought a quirkier version of the popular superhero to the big screen that still featured plenty of action, smarmy repartee, and a welcome appearance by Guy Pearce: Professional Hunk. After the events of The Avengers, ol' Shellhead was feeling a little shell shocked and took to making dozens of new armors as a way to protect himself and his loved ones from increasingly bizarre and deadly threats. The latest of which was the Iron Man Mark XLII suit. This barely tested prototype soon found itself as the center of Tony Stark's plight as he took a trip down south to try and rediscover what it is that makes him so damn cool.

The Sci-Fi Revoltech line has been steadily making new Iron Man figures since the first movie came out and until recently were the only mid-range Japanese toys of this blockbuster superhero. While there are several toys of the Mark XLII available at retail, I am a total weirdo and insisted on getting this particular version of the armor from a Japanese line. Let's take this baby for a test drive and see what shakes loose!

Shellhead the 42nd stands a good six inches tall is nearly covered from head to toe in an eye-catching gloss finish. While most Revoltechs of human figures average out to being roughly 1/12 scale, Iron Man's armored presence makes him appear bit larger than most. The Mark XLII is a radical departure from the main armors of the previous films and features a lot more visible detailing mixed with a heaping help of gold parts. I quite like the extra bulk it has and the added coloring makes the armor stand out among its brothers while also invoking the classic "Golden Avenger" look.

This toy is loaded with detailing and doesn't look gummy or mushy the way other PVC action figures can.

All the little nooks and mechanical crevasses are picked out with paint apps. His gold plated posterior is highlighted with care.

I especially like the sculpting and paint work on the Iron Girdle. It reflects the Mark XLII's need to be a flexible powered suit.

Even the Arc Reactor in his chest has the appropriate detailing like a triangle embossed on the clear plastic chest window.

His armored noggin sits atop a double Revoltech joint and has a good range of motion. The neck itself is its own plastic sheath that moves around the joint. I find if his neck looks a little short I just pull the head off the joint a bit until it looks right.

The Mark XLII comes with a small selection of accessories that cover the basics of what a good Iron Man needs. You get a display stand, a clear orange Revo-container, a name plate, two extra pairs of hands, two Repuslor blasts, and an extra set of blast effect parts with long beams.

Not included but show on the box are the jet boot effect parts that came with the Mark VII figure. This omission is irksome as the figure feels slightly less complete without them.

As Revoltechs have evolved, their ability to remain upright in a natural looking manner has improved leaps and bound.

The Mark XLII is fully capable of a casual pose and stands pretty well unaided. He is a little top heavy but that's mostly due to his bulky upper body. If you're used to handling Revoltechs then making this Iron Man stand up is easy.

An abundance of Revoltech joints give the Mark XLII and great range of movement with each clicky Revoltech joint acting like a miniature ratcheted joint. It's quite amazing what Tony Stark has accomplished with his state-of-the-art transistors!

Most of the figure's joints are accomplished with the standard single Revoltech joint with a pair of large double-joints for the knees. The knees themselves are a minor point of contention sculpt wise as they do not feature a floating knee guard over the joint like on some other Revoltechs.

His shoulder pads are attached to the back of his upper arms via a small Revoltech joint. It may seem a little awkward at first but this actually does decent job of hiding the gap between his arm and body. Like with all Revoltechs, just remember to work all the joints before getting into heavy play.

The Iron Man Revoltechs all have one major deviation from the standard fare with their hips joints being done with a conventional ball and socket joint. They also have a swivel right where the thigh meets the hip. Despite the varying joint styles, the figure still feels cohesive. He even has moving toes for extra strutting!

He can even punch the ground like a good Ground Punch Man should. If it looks a little awkward here it's because even in the movie this particular pose always seemed kind of stiff due to how the practical and CGI bits of the suit would clash. I feel like the hips on this figure represent how the Iron Man suits would move in real life without any computerized smoothing.

The back of the box shows that this figure can also sit down. I do not own a matching 1/12 scale couch so here he is sitting on a package for some other thing.

All of his optional hands feature great detailing and attach to a small Revoltech joint in his wrists. My only complaint with these is how there is only one set of hand guards that have to be shared with all the hands. The guards themselves are made of a really soft material that feels like it might tear with rough handling. Just remember to pull off the guards by the little ring that slides into the ends of each hand. Or try using a toothpick to push them out from underneath the flap.

These hands are probably my favorite of the bunch as they have the perfect sculpt for depicting Tony letting loose some Repulsor blasts against a lava-breathing fire person.

He comes with a pair of blast effect parts that peg into either these hands or the flat palm ones.

You can swap out the middle cone piece with a longer blast.

He fights and fights with Repulsor rays!

The flats hands are made for his usual flight position. However there is an issue with getting Tony to fly...

As far as I can tell the Mark XLII doesn't have a convenient hole for attaching the Revoltech stand that he comes with. This figure is too heavy for a regular Revoltech stand anyways so I ended up just using a Tamashii Stage Act 5.

He doesn't like to be handed things.

All that said, the flat hands do have other uses.

The name tag is a standard feature on all the Sci-Fi Revoltechs and gives them an air of sophistication. If I had a small desk for Tony, this would be on it.

Sadly the model number is not in roman numerals as it should be. I am still glad we have something other than Super Bowls to keep this classic numbering system alive!

Probably the best feature of this figure is how it can replicate the Mark XLII's ability to separate into independently functional parts! Revoltechs are built in this modular way so it's like a match made in Asgard.

Tony's got some balls.

The Mark XLII figure uses a lot of the standard sized Revoltech joints cast in shiny gray plastic. I find that special color Revoltech joints can be a little looser between clicks than the regular black ones but if you have issues with a single joint it's very easy to replace one with another.

And thanks to the pervasiveness of display stands and the generosity of companies like Kaiyodo, Bandai, and Max Factory have in distributing them, I can have all the portions of this figure in flight just like in the movie!

Seriously I feel like my collection is 50% stands by this point.

The modular nature of Revoltechs means that other figures from the line can use parts of the armor like how Tony does in the film. You could make an Iron Rei...

Or an Iron Rei.

Around the internet there have been some debates over whether or not Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance could defeat Tony Stark in his Iron Man armors. I think we all know who would win this fight...

HIBIKI!!!

"Superior tech!"

Even though I am a fan of the character and really enjoyed his movies, I recently realized that I didn't own any Iron Man figures before getting the Revoltech Mark XLII. While I may have pined for a Hot Toys rendition of Shellhead, I think a Revoltech fits my collection and tastes a lot more. Those into the line will find the Iron Man Mark XLII to be a terrific figure that looks great and poses really well. Casual fans who are more used to things like Marvel Legends may be put off by the quirky construction of Revoltechs and the relatively higher price of Japanese toys. Personally, I am thoroughly satisfied by this figure and am wishing I kept up with the Iron Man Revoltechs because they seem pretty great!

Until next time, true believers!

"Hey Tony can you pick me up some scratchers while you're out? Thanks."

I am waiting for this guy!!! I purchased it on january 6th from amiami and I am still waiting for it, it is just what i wanted, I had before the Marvel legends Mark VI and Mark 42 but even when they where bigger I was not fully satisfied they where kind of stiff, I sold them and purchased a Mark VI and I loved it and after that this Mark 42 that will look awesome next to it, I would like to purchase the previous ones but their prize have sky rocketed, but anyways a great review as always keep it up, I was eagerly waiting for this review.